Raft is Nigel Mazlyn Jones’ eleventh album and it has been out for a while. In fairness, he hadn’t heard of us and, to be honest, I thought he’d probably retired. Nigel is a veteran of the 70s who has been, in his time, a zookeeper and an inshore lifeboatman. He moved to Cornwall more than forty years ago and stayed there, unlike many others who had gravitated to the beaches to busk.
His early work featured such luminaries as Johnny Coppin and Dik Cadbury but it was a meeting with Van Der Graaf Generator drummer Guy Evans that broadened his musical palette and he was as likely to be found alongside Nik Turner as Phil Beer. His signature style is 12-string guitar, often played with a bow to give a range of sounds that you have to hear rather than have described. Evans plays drums and percussion and Nigel is clearly a fan of the bass – he plays a bit himself – for Robin Phillips’ fretless and Roger Patterson’s fretless and Chapman stick are integral to the album’s sound.
Raft is essentially about the impermanence of life, humanity and the planet itself. ‘News 24 2050’ is a witty, pointed observation on our impending global catastrophe and the title track, rather more poetic, reminds me oddly of a post-apocalypse story. I do like the way Nigel gives himself space to develop ideas. ‘Free Flight’, for example, begins with a flight home from somewhere but takes off instrumentally in the middle before returning to a variant of the initial idea and the long ’60 Miles Of Horizon’ does the same thing with 12-string and bass producing some extraordinary sounds.
It’s quite possible that you haven’t heard Nigel before; his profile has never been high but Raft gives you the chance to widen your musical horizons. Think pastoral songs mixed with space rock and a hint of Roy Harper in the vocal style and you have some idea of what to expect.
Dai Jeffries
Artist’s website: www.nigelmazlynjones.com
Videos of Nigel Mazlyn Jones aren’t exactly thick on the ground but here is an old live clip to give you an idea of how he sounds ‘On A Singularly Fine Day’:
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